By: Yusuf M Hasan
Somalilandsun – A girl is nursing bullet wounds sustained during scuffles with officers from the Liyuu police.
The incident occurred in Somaliland after a car load of Liyuu police from the Somalia Zone five regional administration of Ethiopia made an incursion into Buhoodle town purportedly with intent to abduct a religious teacher on the 17th March.
According to the Mayor of Buhoodle Osman Yusuf Mohamed the carload of Liyuu police drove directly to the Madrasa (Quran School) where their intended abductee was conducting lessons for a girl’s only class.
“One armed officer entered the classroom and ordered the teacher to come out, only to have the girls take his gun after a short scuffle” said Mayor Osman
The narrative goes on to indicate that the inured heroine was shot twice on the chest by another Liyuu police officer in support of his overpowered and humiliated colleague.
Adding that the kidnap mission failed miserably due to the bravery of the heroic girls Mayor Osman said,
The brawl that saw young girls overpower and disarm members of the specially trained unit from the Zone resulted in the safe escape of the teacher”
The resumption of incursions into Somaliland by the notorious Liyuu police is worrisome to citizens residing in areas close to the border with Ethiopia.
The crop up of Liyuu Police raids deep inside Somaliland is not only against international norms but contrary to arrangements between Addis Ababa and Hargeisa that placed Ethiopia Federal troops on the Border two years ago.
While the present episode only resulted in injuries to the Buhoodle heroine, residents are fearful of more and deadly acts by the notorious Zone five special police that have in the past killed injured and abducted many Somalilanders during similar cowardly attacks on unarmed people.
The area civic leader who alleges lacklustre response by the central government in Hargeisa says insecurity could become a problem in Buhoodle where a number of opposing political forces prevail.
“if the Somalia regional administrating of Ethiopia which is always intent on disrupting peace in East Somaliland decides to utilize services of some of the opposing forces then goodbye security and peaceful co-existence in Buhoodle” said Mayor Osman Yusuf Mohamed.
According to the Ethiopian resident Diplomat in Hargeisa, Brigadier General Berhe Tesfaye, “it is only the Ethiopian Federal Government that has the Constitutional mandate to deal with cross-border security”
Adding that since Ethiopian Federal troops took over border manning duties between the two countries after complaints by Somaliland over two years ago, the prior and incessant incursions by the Liyuu Police from his country’s Somalia regional administration have ceased completely.
The Liyuu police, a paramilitary force controlled by the zone five regional administration president out of the Ethiopian town of Jigjiga has on several occasions while armed to the teeth, crossed into Somaliland boundaries where it has perpetrated crimes that go unpunished.
The unit’s obsession with Somaliland is not confined inside the countries territorial boundaries but extends to Ethiopian citizens of Somaliland origin who have continuously suffered under the hated unit’s brutality.
Though Somalilanders, in despair, seem to have gotten used to the nefarious activities of the undisciplined zone five tribal police unit what itches them most is the relentless want to know what and why the government does about the obvious carte blanche authority that the unit operates with.
At the same time one never stops to wonder whether the Somalia Administrative region of Ethiopia and its thuggish Liyuu Police are after a thorough beating that is definitely long overdue.
This is for the government to tell before the ever resilient Somalilanders run out of patience and take matters into their own hands and good riddance international repercussions.
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